


The Problem With Communication

by itsallAvengers



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Deaf Character, First Dates, Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Honestly.....this is just pure fluff, M/M, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 09:38:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15116705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsallAvengers/pseuds/itsallAvengers
Summary: Steve is terrible at flirting, but when he finally picks up the courage to talk to the adorable barista who makes his drinks, he finds himself hitting a small snag:That being, Tony is deaf. He doesn't know what Steve is saying.But never say Steve Rogers does not rise to a challenge.





	The Problem With Communication

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I was craving ice cream and I was bROKE so I asked if anyone wanted to donate a fiver so I could go and eat Sugary Goodness, and in return I'd write a fic. TWO PEOPLE CAME THRU FOR ME, SO MIMI AND STRIVINGARTIST, THIS IS FOR YOU.

It was stupid, to be half in love with a person you’d never even spoken to.

Steve watched as the barista named Tony swung the cardboard cup up in the air, bouncing it off his elbow without even looking and landing it on the counter with ease. Long, beautiful fingers flipped the switches on the coffee machine and set it off working, and then he jerked his head, flipping the thick curls out of his face, letting Steve see the tiniest flash of the most stunning blue eyes he’d ever seen. He set his focus on the coffee underneath his hands, his face intense, like all his attention was devoted to the fairly mundane task, and Steve knew he should probably stop watching right about now, because it was getting weird, but he just couldn’t help himself.

He’d been coming here every day for weeks, since he and his friends had opened up their comic-book store on the other side of the street to the café, and each and every time Steve had never had the courage to just go up and speak to the damn guy.

It might have been easier if the man actually served people, but it always tended to be someone else who took his order, and just Tony who made the drinks and then dipped back into the kitchen before Steve could speak a word. Sometimes though, he got a shy little smile from across the room when Tony was wiping down the tables or clearing up behind the counter and caught Steve watching him. Steve always quickly averted his gaze and tried to hide his blush at being caught out, and sometimes he would even hear the smallest and most lovely chuckles. They made Steve’s entire morning whenever he managed to coax one out of him.

They were currently communicating through half-hidden smiles, stolen glances, and occasionally Tony would draw smiley faces or leave little messages on the cup before the server handed it over to Steve from across the counter. Steve retaliated by leaving doodles of Tony at work on scraps of paper, and then dropping them hurriedly on the counter before hurrying away.

It was a bit stupid. Steve just needed to grow some courage and actually talk to him. But…

God, he was just so  _pretty_. Steve knew that he would fumble it, and then he’d ruin everything and Tony would think he was super weird or something. He was… well, he was working up to it, okay,  _slowly_. Thinking over what he could say. Working on his pickup lines.

“This is pretty pathetic, dude,” Bucky told him as he sat across from Steve on the soft couches in the open-plan café. “Does your idea of flirting just involve staring at him like a creep until he calls homeland security or something?”

Steve blinked, and pulled his eyes away from Tony’s back as he reached up for some syrup on the top shelf. He then shoved Bucky sulkily. “It’s not pathetic,” he said, pouting a little. “It’s romantic.”

That made Bucky chuckle. “Oh, Steve, one day I’ll teach you how to flirt. Until then, though, I’ll just leave you with a simple task: fucking say hi to the guy.”

“It’s not that simple, Buck-“

“Why the hell not?”

“Because!” Steve flapped his hands, flustered, and then quickly tamed them into something more normal when Tony caught the action and looked over. Steve just smiled at him, and then felt his heart do a few flips ion his chest when Tony looked down for a second and then smiled back, before slipping into the kitchen again. Steve watched him go, and then whipped his head back to Bucky and pointed over at the space Tony had just occupied. “Have you seen him? He’s… he’s gorgeous! He almost certainly has a girlfriend, because he is hot and cute and straight, undoubtedly-“

“Oh, right,” Bucky scoffed, “because all these overdrawn staring matches and ridiculous smiles are just casual, definitely.” He leaned forward, grabbing his cup and taking a hearty swig of espresso. “Look, Steve, he’s into you. Even I can see that- although God knows why, after the flirting tactics you’ve been employing. But whatever works for you guys, I guess. Anyway- I’m going to leave you now, and when you get back on shift, I am expecting you to tell me that you at  _least_  said hi.  _At the very least.”_

“And if I don’t?”

“I’m coming in here and telling him myself,” Bucky declared promptly, before standing up. “Good luck, buddy.”

Steve’s eyes widened in horror. “No, nuh uh, don’t you dare-“

“Now or never, Stevie!” Bucky jogged backward and grinned, waving a hand toward the counter where Tony had just reappeared. It was early on a Tuesday morning, so there was no-one else in the café at all aside from Steve, Bucky and Tony. The other ginger woman who usually manned the counter was nowhere to be seen, this time.

Steve flipped him the bird, but Bucky just cackled and then let the door shut with a small tinker of the bell. Tony was looking at the place Bucky had just left, blinking a few times in confusion, before he once more turned to Steve and then smiled once again.

_Now or never. Now or never. Come on, Steve, just man up and say hi. Hi was easy. It didn’t mean anything. It was just a hi, for God’s sake._

He stood up and rubbed his palms on his jeans, before stumbling forward. Okay, this was going to be fine. He was just saying hello to his ridiculously attractive barista who he’d been staring at for pretty much one month straight.

Wandering up to the counter as casually as he could, he pressed his hands into the cool marble and leaned forward, clearing his throat. Tony, who was cleaning the espresso machine, didn’t seem to notice, and Steve resisted the urge to just turn tail and run. He’d got this far. He could do the rest, right?

“Hi,” he blurted, before his anxiety could start screaming in his ears. “Hi, I’m… I’m Steve.”

Tony didn’t even turn around.

Steve stopped, caught like a rabbit in the headlights. Tony hadn’t even acknowledged him at all. Oh, shit,  _now_  what was Steve supposed to do? Act like he’d never said anything? Never come to the café again? Apologize? See, this was why he should have just kept his mouth shut, how the hell was anyone supposed to talk to strangers, there should be a fucking rule book for this shit-

Tony turned, then, reaching for the cloth, and he saw Steve staring at him like a lost puppy. He stopped in his tracks.

“Sorry,” Steve blurted hurriedly, looking down and backing up, “sorry, I don’t… I didn’t… God, this is so weird, did I freak you out? Sorry-“

He paused his rambling when Tony gave him a blank look, and then held up his two hands. Steve just kept looking at him, entirely unsure of where to say.

But then Tony did a funny gesture with his finger. Moved it from his ear down to his mouth, and then licked his lips nervously. Steve stopped for a second, completely blanking. He had no idea what Tony was doing, and was far too frightened to even ask.

Tony did it again, and then shrugged. He looked slightly sad now, and his eyes fell away from Steve’s as he shook his head.

It clicked, somewhere in the back of Steve’s currently frozen-in-fear brain.

“You’re deaf?” He blurted, before shaking his head. Oh God. Idiot. He was asking a deaf person a verbal question.

Tony must have been able to lipread or something though, because he just nodded a little sadly. He shrugged, and then made an aborted movement with his hands like he was going to say something, before he realized that Steve wouldn’t understand it. He shuffled uncomfortably on his heels and looked down.

Oh. Tony was embarrassed.

Steve felt himself frown, his anxiety suddenly forgotten as he decided on a method to get around this problem. A second later, however, a beautifully lucky realization threw itself into his mind, and he jumped on his feet, making Tony look at him in surprise.

Steve grinned, and then held up a hand, beginning to step backward. “Wait here,” he said, hoping Tony could lip read well enough to understand what Steve was saying. To solidify the request, he pointed to Tony, and then to the ground, before suddenly turning on his heel and sprinting out of the door without another word, heading in the direction his little comic-book store where the rest of his friends were working.

He had a plan. 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Tony watched as Steve turned and hightailed it out of the café, and all he could do was sigh.

He hadn’t expected anything less. It’s what everyone did, when they realized that he was, y’know, deaf as fuck. Tony couldn’t even blame them. How was 90% of the world supposed to have anything to do with him, when he couldn’t even hold a conversation?

Steve had been nice, though. And hot. Tony had stupidly found himself wondering, just a little, whether Steve would be able to speak ASL- or just any sign language at all. Tony knew British, Spanish, French and Chinese sign language- any one of them would have been a Godsend, even if Steve had only known the basics.

Tony had still been too scared to actually do anything other than smile at him from across the room, though. Because he knew it was stupid to wish for things like this. Normal people didn’t know any sign at all. Normal people just tended to stare at him blankly when he shrugged and told them he was deaf, and then make some hasty excuse to leave so they wouldn’t have to attempt the awkward task of communication.

Tony looked down and bit his lip. It was fine. He didn’t have time for more people than Rhodey and Pep, anyway. He was busy inventing and writing up his thesis for MIT. Other important things. More important than friends, for sure.

Slapping the cloth a little more violently than usual onto the counter, Tony wiped down the surface and tried not to think about Steve, and how he probably wasn’t actually going to come into the café and smile at him again. Which was fine. Maybe Steve would see him in five years, when Tony was on TV, famous for his designs, and able to hear everything perfectly thanks to the invention he was currently working on.

Hah. That’d show him. And Howard, who’d kicked him out four years ago at fifteen after getting too bored of trying to fix Tony and decided him a lost cause. And all the teachers who’d looked down on him and thought he was stupid. And  _everyone_ -

There was a sudden movement ahead of him, and he looked up curiously.

Well. Okay. He really… hadn’t expected to see Steve back so soon. And this time, he was dragging a friend along with him. With ashy, spiky blond hair, he was short and stocky, and looked rather confused to be here. Tony was feeling the same way.

Steve looked over to him and smiled brightly, and Tony just blinked. Steve, apparently unperturbed, turned to his friend, and spoke rapidly, too fast for Tony to be able to catch and lipread. He stood there rather awkwardly, until the blonde man turned to Tony in surprise, and then grinned.

Then he lifted his hands and signed  _‘hi, I’m Clint.’_

Tony took an instinctive step backward in shock. Steve was just smiling happily.

It took a moment for him to be able to respond. Too busy staring at Steve incredulously.  _‘Hi,’,_  he signed back,  _‘I’m Tony. And I’m… very confused’_

That made Clint laugh, and he turned to Steve and repeated Tony’s words, keeping his mouth facing Tony as he did it. Tony read easily this time, because Clint’s mouth moved slowly, expertly. Steve nodded, and then smiled brightly at Tony. It was like the sun, Tony thought a little dazedly.

Steve said something else to Clint, who nodded with a small roll of his eyes. He turned back to Tony, and then lifted his hands once more.  _‘Steve’s asked me to tell you that he thinks you’re really pretty, and he’s been wanting to talk to you for ages, but he never knew how to start it because he’s an awkward bitch.’_

Tony grinned, and cocked his head.  _‘How hard were you paraphrasing there?’_  he asked, because he’d been watching Steve’s mouth, and was pretty sure that it hadn’t been saying things like that.

Clint shrugged.  _‘Oh, none of that actually came out of his mouth. He told me to tell you something about dumb cup flips and the smiley faces you drew which he liked, because he is way too socially awkward to actually let you know about his massive crush. But he is totally smitten. He talks about you all the time at work.’_

Tony raised his eyebrows, feeling his heart speed up a few notches. He looked to Steve, who was grinning a little bashfully and rocking back and forth on his heels. It was adorable, and it was… it was touching. That Steve had thought to do this for him, to go to that much effort.

Most people just gave up.

He kept eye contact with Steve as he signed  _‘can you tell him that I think he’s cute?’_  over at Clint.

Clint did, and then Tony watched as Steve blushed firetruck red and then bit his lip as he held his smile down, looking at his shoes. Tony didn’t hear his own laugh, but he felt the vibrations in his throat.

Steve paused for a moment, before stepping forward. He didn’t break eye contact with Tony as he snagged a pen from his pocket and then held out his hand. Tony may have been deaf, but he knew a cue when he saw one, and he dutifully held out his own hand in response, aware of how fast his heart was going underneath his skin.

Steve really wanted… to keep this up? Even when he knew that Tony was-

Steve’s mouth started to move, and Clint translated with the appropriate signals, diverting Tony’s attention _. ‘Steve says that you should text him sometime. He would love to get to know you, but he’s going to need a month before taking you out to dinner, if that would be okay?’_

Tony felt the pen scrape against his wrist, and felt the warmth of Steve’s fingers. He swallowed and then nodded dumbly.  _‘Sure’,_ he responded, which Clint then told Steve, who positively radiated happiness when he looked at Tony again.

When he dropped Tony’s hand, he immediately missed the heat. Tony remained rooted to the spot, somewhat unable to process the information his brain was receiving.

Steve wanted to go on a date with him. Steve wanted his number so they could text.

No one had ever asked him on a date before.

He smiled nervously, and then signed  _‘I’ll text you tonight then, hot stuff,’_  which made Clint grin when he processed it, and Steve blush even redder when it got translated for him. Tony felt himself laugh again, and he stepped back, unable to quite wipe the smile from his face, even as Steve backed off and left the café, waving as he went.

As soon as he was gone, Tony pulled out his phone and then typed in the number, the light feeling in his heart making his fingers shake the tiniest amount. He was scared, and he had no idea how to do any of this, and would almost certainly ruin it in less than a week, because that was just the way he worked, but-

Well. Steve liked him. That was… more than anything Tony had ever had before. It sent a weird feeling into the pit of his stomach; fear and panic and a weird kind of hysterical happiness, that centred itself right above his heart.

Maybe, just maybe, this could work.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Steve swallowed nervously, hands going through his hair for the seventh time that minute as he looked to the entrance of the restaurant and waited for Tony to walk through the doors.

Over the past month, they’d pretty much been texting non-stop. Steve found that not only was Tony amazingly attractive, but he was funny too.  _And_ kind.  _And_ interesting.  _And_ smart, god, Tony was pretty much the perfect guy, wrapped up in a beautiful package. It was a wonder that no one had picked him up already.

Steve couldn’t exactly say he minded about everyone else’s idiocy, however. It just meant that Tony was there, for  _him_.

And, of course, speak of the devil-

Steve’s breath caught in his throat as he caught sight of Tony as he slipped through the doors. Dressed in a midnight blue suit, curls styled out of his face, aside from one ringlet which had fallen free and draped itself over one of Tony’s piercing blue eyes. His gaze shifted across the room rapidly, and Steve waved, standing up so suddenly that he almost knocked the bottle of water over in his clumsiness.

Tony smiled at him- the same shy little thing that they’d been sharing at the café for nearly two months now- and Steve just melted.

He wandered forward, a little nervously. He seemed to be searching for someone else- Clint, no doubt- but when he came up blank, his face twitched into the smallest frown of confusion, and he looked back to Steve.

Taking a deep breath, Steve lifted his hands and signed  _‘you look beautiful’._

For the past month, he’d been taking lessons whenever he could. He had Clint testing him every night, and his quick learning meant that he’d managed to grasp the basics of it all fairly rapidly. He could finger spell with ease, and for the words that he didn’t know or couldn’t understand, he’d brought a pen and paper handy with him too.

Tony froze, eyes going wide. Then he laughed. Loud and untamed due to the fact that Tony could not hear himself, Steve thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. He lifted his own hands and signed slowly, ‘ _you learned for me?’_

Steve nodded.  _‘I’m still bad. You have to sign slowly. But I have pen and paper in case I don’t…’_ he paused, trying to think of the word, before clicking his fingers and finishing with the ASL for  _‘follow’._

Tony was looking at him with a face so full of softness and… and  _emotion_. He licked his lips and looked away, and when he looked back, Steve noticed that his eyes were a little damp. Immediately, Steve’s face fell, and he rushed forward, going to reach out for Tony’s hands, before pulling back and signing  _‘sorry, sorry, I just wanted to make it easy for you’_

Tony shook his head though, and he smiled, even when the first tear fell from his cheek. He cupped Steve’s cheek with soft and lovely fingers, just for a moment, before pulling away and signing  _‘No one has ever gone to that much effort to understand me before.’_

Steve stopped, and then he clenched his jaw, gathering all of his confidence and then taking Tony’s hands into his own. Pressing the most feather-light kiss to his knuckles, Steve smiled, and then dropped them.  _‘Well, no one else knew what they were missing out on.’_

Tony huffed, and quickly wiped his face, before looking back to Steve. Taking in a small huff of air, he suddenly leaned up onto his tiptoes and then placed his hands lightly to Steve’s chest, kissing him ever so softly on the mouth. It was nervous and quick, and when Tony pulled away he was looking down at his feet, blushing bright red.

God, Steve was so lucky.

“I have a feeling this is going to go really, really well,” Steve said out loud whilst Tony was still looking down at his shoes, feeling as if the grin on his face was bright enough to light up the entire room.

 


End file.
